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Nevada Notices, Make Sure You’re Up to Date
Over the summer, Nevada has issued minimum wage updates and a new overtime bulletin. Nevada requires that employers post a number of notices in the workplace informing employees of their rights and obligations under the law. As usual, the posters must be hung in a conspicuous area where employees are likely to congregate or in multiple locations if a workplace is particularly large with multiple entrances, exits, and rest areas.

Before we get to the standard stuff like overtime bulletins and minimum wages, let’s talk about some of the changes Nevada employers need to be aware of. If an employer decides to terminate, reduce or modify any employee benefits then this decision must be posted conspicuously for employees to see. Likewise, if an employer intends to discontinue payments of premiums, for whatever reason, employees must be notified.

They must also post English and Spanish versions of Nevada Laws Prohibit Discrimination which outlines the various discriminatory practices that the are illegal. As of January 1, 2018 Nevada also issued a bulletin that employers are required to post regarding domestic violence and the Nevada Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnancy.

Nevada’s new overtime bulletin was released in July of this year and stipulates that employees working more than their allotted 40 hours a week shall be paid 1 ½ times their wages.

As timeless as the sky and the vast the rolling ranges of Wyoming seem things do indeed change. One example, and you knew this was coming, is in labor laws and worker protections. Wyoming has updated its Workers’ compensation Act notice to reflect recent changes to the law and to add clarity regarding the various heavy industries in the state.
Wyoming, an already energy industry powerhouse, is experiencing a boom in oil and gas exploration and other hazardous jobs and workplaces. Other than this additional clarity all other Wyoming labor laws and posting requirements remain the same. Employees must:
• Provide employees a workplace free from recognized hazards. It is illegal to retaliate against an employee for using their rights or raising health and safety concerns.
• Comply with all applicable OSHA standards.
• Prominently display the applicable labor law poster in a conspicuous are of the workplace.
• Post OSHA citations at or near the place of the alleged violations for a minimum of 3 days or until all the citations are abated.
Federal minimum wage of $7.25 supersedes the Wyoming minimum wage.

In addition to the standard poster that satisfies Illinois labor laws, there are a few other employer postings that employers in Illinois, whether in Chicago, Peoria, or Downstate, need to know about. Released in October of 2018, the Illinois department of Human Rights has released a notice to inform employees of their rights under the Illinois Human Rights Act. It is a civil rights violation under Article 2-102(k) of the Act for an employer to fail to include in a posting on the premises information concerning the rights of employees.
All workers have the right to employment free from unlawful discrimination or sexual harassment, file a charge of discrimination or sexual harassment, and obtain reasonable accommodation. IDHR can investigate charges of employment discrimination filed against employers, public contractors, or labor organizations and unions.
Parallel to this but not precisely the same are Illinois’ employees’ rights surrounding pregnancy in the workplace. A similar employer pregnancy posting is available outlining the various protections that employees have. The rights cover
• Pregnancy
• Recovery from Childbirth
• Common conditions related to pregnancy.
Reasonable accommodations can mean anything from asking employers for more frequent bathroom breaks to assistance with heavy work. An employer may not discriminate against employees for their pregnancy nor retaliate against them for seeking reasonable accommodation under the law. Likewise, it is illegal for employers to fire, refuse to hire, or refuse reasonable accommodation due to pregnancy.

Employers should make all of this information available in a posting and in their employees handbooks.

2019 is approaching fast and with it many updates to your required labor posters and employee notices. The Land of Lincoln, Illinois, is no different. Effective January 1, 2019 the Illinois Service Member Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (ISERRA) goes into effect. A lot of the protections for service members are already in force in other individual laws, so you may already be familiar with some of the rules, but ISERRA seeks to streamline them all in one place.
Important to note before we jump into what Illinois employers need to know about the new ISERRA law is the one related law that this act DOES NOT effect: The Illinois Military Family Military Leave Act. The IMFMLA provides family members of a service member with up to 15 or up to 30 days of unpaid leave (dependent on employer size), when that service member is called to their military duty for more than 30 days.
ISERRA is largely similar to the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA)USERRA, but there are differences to note. Following is a summary of the expanded protections the Illinois statute offers.
“Military Service” is expanded to include:
• Service in a federally recognized auxiliary of the United States Armed Forces when called up to support authorities in the case of emergencies
• Service covered by the Illinois State Guard Act
• Any period where service members are away from work due to medical or dental treatment related to a condition sustained during active service.
There IS a required posting component of the law available from the Illinois Attorney General. ISERRA applies to essentially ALL Illinois employers regardless of size. The notice must be posted where other employee notices are and we encourage you to update your policies and procedures in accordance with this new law.

Exemptions to Wisconsin Minimum Wage Rate and Poster

Wisconsin has been at the middle of quite a few labor disputes over the last two years due to its contentious state politics but don’t let that obscure the fact that its labor laws are pretty standard issue. One of the most recent revisions to Wisconsin’s labor poster requirements came about in June of 2017 (ancient times, in employment law!) but that doesn’t mean you’re any less responsible for being up to date.
The notice concerns Wisconsin workers with disabilities and the special minimum wage at which they’re paid. The mandatory workplace posting is part of the Wisconsin Minimum Wage, Hours of Work, and Overtime Law. Generally, employees are covered by Wisconsin’s minimum wage and overtime law provisions with child labor law provisions applying to employees under the age of 18. However, workers whose disabilities impair their ability to perform their work may be employed under a special minimum wage license issued by the Department of Workforce Development.
For those establishments with such a license, the rates must reflect the productivity of the worker compared to the productivity of a worker not disabled for similar work and to the wages paid to experienced workers performing the same or similar work in the vicinity. Quite a noble effort to encourage participation in the workforce by all people willing to work even if their abilities are non-traditional.
Now as we mentioned earlier, in order to be able to pay less than the standard applicable minimum wage the business must obtain a license to do so. Eligibility and issuance of the license is governed under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act issued by the United States Department of Labor.
Is your business eligible for such an exemption? Are you meeting your posting requirements?

Anti-Retaliation Mandatory Posting, Wisconsin

If you’re a close reader of this blog, you’ve no doubt come across the many examples of anti-retaliation that are a feature of many employment and labor laws. This makes a lot of sense as the power dynamics inherent in employer-employee relationships as well as the penalties for violations of laws can be treacherous to navigate. In an attempt to allow violations and victims to come forward many laws put an anti-retaliation clause as part of any labor legislation. This is no difference in the state of Wisconsin. Sometimes, however this anti-retaliation sentiment is not just a clause meant to enforce legislation but the legislation itself as is the case with the Wisconsin law we are discussing today.

The State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Equal Rights Division enforces the law that affords Retaliation Protection for Health Care Workers in Wisconsin (associated poster: ERD-12210-P, revised 05/2014). The law basically regulates any facility as defined in s. 647.01(4) or any hospital, nursing home or residential facility, et al. Any of these facilities, licensed or approved by the department of health and family services must display the poster in one or more conspicuous places where notices to employees are customarily posted.

The law essentially governs employees who work in these facilities and in good faith reports:
any potential violations of state or federal law,
any situation where care is provided in a manner that violates state or ethical standards or law.
The reporting may be done through:
Internal reports to any director, supervisor, or officer of the health-care facility,
An agency or body that accredits certifies, or approves the facility.

Employees who engage in such reporting may not be disciplined or otherwise retaliated against for bringing to light such activity. Any such retaliation against them, when reported on within 300 days, will be dealt with by the proper authorities.

Everything is bigger in Texas, so they say. Now it’s true that you can print you labor posters and employee notices basically as large as you like and post them in a conspicuous place in your workplace but according to federal and Texas law the mandatory postings are allowed to be much smaller, just about regular size. Now that we got size out of the way, let’s dive into the Texas requirements for posting employee notices in your workplace. You may not be the biggest employer in Texas (or you might) but you sure are the most compliant, aren’t you?

Workplace compliance posters required to be displayed can vary across different types of employers. All Texas employers must display posters containing information on the Workers’ Compensation Program, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act. But these are just the standard federal hodgepodge so you knew that.

As far as Texas specific posters there can be quite a few and knowing which are required for your particular business can be the difference between being compliant and not. Keep up to date with your requirements by keeping up to date with this blog but for now here’s a taste of the various posters required in Texas:

Texas Payday Law Poster

Employers liable under the Texas Unemployment Compensation Act

Equal Opportunity Is the Law Poster

Workers’ Compensation Employer forms and Notices (available from the Texas Department of Insurance)

The simple answer to whether you need to replace labor law posters every year is…maybe.

Compliance is About Mandatory Changes – Not Calendars

If you’re in charge of the posting program for your company, it may be tempting to simply press the purchase button on a poster vendor’s web store year after year. Chances are you will receive compliant posters every January – whether you need them or not! But guess what?

The posters from last year still might be perfectly good.

But let’s pretend you want to be absolutely sure that your company has the most current workplace posters.

Does buying every posters every year guarantee compliance?

NO, and here’s why:

Not every posting change takes place on January 1 each year.

Government agencies may issue postings later than their laws’ effective dates.

That means when you buy your brand new posters, it’s possible that the very next week one of the required postings may have changed.

You just purchased a non-compliant poster to proudly display for 51 weeks until you order again.

Some postings do change each year like clockwork. Many of the citywide minimum wages, for example, adjust annually based on changes to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). But some postings change less frequently, or not at all.

So if you’re looking for compliance certainty, and you don’t want to overspend on posters, your best option is to choose our subscription-based Our Smart Poster Update Plans. With an Update Program, your locations automatically receive replacement posters if there have been changes to the required postings. Even if the same posting changes twice or three times in a year, you’re locations are covered. (And, yes, it’s happened!)

Moral of the story: If you have an annual budget allotted for the purchase of labor law posters, consider whether you want to spend it on the uncertainty of “buying posters” or the sure thing, enterprise compliance.

Keep Compliant with Labor Law Posting Requirements – AUTOMATICALLY

With our subscription plan, you get “set it and forget it” compliance with a subscription service to keep your locations compliant – all for one low price, no matter how often laws change. Our Program is backed by the industry’s first unlimited guarantee to protect you from government fines for labor law posting violations and employee disputes.

How Do I Know if My Posters are Up-to-Date?

The best way to tell if your posters are up-to-date is to audit your existing posters. To perform an audit, you may need to cross-reference the print date on your posters with a list provided by other poster providers. However, that can be a confusing and time-consuming process.

At the beginning of last year Governor Larry Hogan Signed Executive Order 01.01.2018.04 which provided for the first posting requirement I’d like to discuss here today. It concerns the Maryland Earned Sick and Safe Leave Employee Notice. The law, and associated poster, applies to employers with 15 or more employees and requires paid sick and safe leave for employees. for employers that employ 14 or fewer employees it requires Unpaid sick and safe leave.

As in many states that have bolstered or expanded upon federal sick and safe leave provisions, Maryland allows for an accrual scheme that may take a bit getting used to. For every 30 hours an employee works they accrue 1 hour of leave time. Employees are NOT entitled to earn more than 40 hours of paid sick leave in a year or more than 64 hours of earned sick and safe leave at any time.

According to the poster, an employee is allowed to use earned sick and safe leave under the following conditions:

To care for or treat the employee’s mental or physical illness, injury, or condition;

to obtain preventative medical care;

To care for a family member with a mental or physical illness or condition;

For maternity OR Paternity leave;

For matter pertaining to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking committed against the employee or the employee’s family member.

Employers are required to provide a written statement of the employee’s available earned sick and safe leave. They are also prohibited under the law from taking adverse action against an employee who exercises a right under the Maryland Healthy Working Families Act.

You know, sometimes we become such experts at whatever it is that we do that it becomes easy to overlook the most basic, foundation aspects of the things that we do. Today we’re going to dial it way back and discuss the things that are so basic to Labor Law Posters and Employee Notices that they barely need mentioning. Barely.

How and where to hang employee notices?

Federal and most states require that their mandatory postings be displayed in a “conspicuous area.” What is a conspicuous area, you ask? Good question. Any place that most of your employees are on a daily basis should qualify. Of course this is highly dependent on what kind of workplace you are running but some good rules of thumb are:

Areas where employees take breaks

Dining areas,

Near the bathrooms,

Near the water fountain or cooler,

Near the check-in clock,

Make sure your posters are the right size.

Most state departments of Labor will stipulate the correct size for a poster itself and the lettering. make sure you comply with these rules. If you’re not able to find these parameters for your locality contact us or just err on the size of bigger and more readable.

For a federal reference a compliant Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) Job Safety and Health posting must be 8.5 by 14 inches.

Mind the condition of your postings.

Even if your posters are in the right place and of the right sizes make sure they are kept in good condition. According to OSHA: “each employer is required to take steps to ensure that such notices are not altered, defaced, or covered by other material.” A dedicated space for your labor posters, away from other company notices, is a good idea to ensure they don’t get covered up by other notices. A good quality, professionally printed and laminated labor poster will stand up to the most common situations of moisture, people brushing up against them, or a disastrous coffee spill.

Remove Old Posters as Soon as you Post the Updated Ones.

This seems obvious, but we’ve seen our share of unfortunate citations due to old and outdated information being displayed even when the correct update information is also displayed somewhere. As soon as you a new and updated employee notice make sure to discard the old one.